You're Superheros Now, Charlie Brown!
by TheTimelordTourist
Summary: Superhero!Fic. In the winter solstice of 2010, History will repeat itself in granting one of the greatest blessings, and heaviest burdens on thirteen young teenagers. T for language. On Hiatus 02/26/13 Important Update 03/13/13!
1. Prologue

**A/N: So, I've been wanting to try this for a while, but I needed to hammer out a few things first. Now that I have some vague idea of what I want, I'm going to see if you all like it too. It's just the prologue, but I should have the first chapter out soon. Enjoy :D**

_**Prologue**: But Baby, It's Cold Outside  
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_On the winter solstice in the year 1638, 12 young people traveling to the Plymouth Church from a small, distant village in Massachusetts witnessed an event not to be seen again for another 372 years. These teenagers' lives were forever changed by what they had witnessed. Their very beings literally evolved due to the events of that night. They were the first. Their children, their children's children, and the children hundreds of years later would lay in wait for another glimpse of the red winter moon that changed those original twelve so drastically._

_On the winter solstice in the year 2010 seven young men and six young women traveling home from a concert in a nearby town witnessed an event that had not happened for 372 years. These thirteen teenagers' lives were also forever changed by what they had witnessed. They did not know it yet, but every fiber in their body was changing as they watched the night sky in wonder. They are the second. Their parents, their grandparents and their earliest known ancestors had waited with baited breath for the return of the red winter moon that would change everyone so drastically._

_This is their story.

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_

"We're so going to die."

Lucy let out another impatient sigh, wrapping her arms around herself against the frigid wind. She rolled her eyes for what felt like the fifteenth time in the last minute, "We are not going to die, Sally."

"But it's so cold!" The blond whined, stomping her foot half to emphasize her point, and half to gain any extra warmth from the action. Lucy was about to snap at the girl again, but before she could even open her mouth, Schroeder had shrugged off his jacket and throw it haphazardly towards Sally.

She glared at him, huffing, "Well now _you're_ going to freeze your ass off."

"Fuck that noise, you're the one who said I was 'hot as hell'," He remarked dryly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He had found the easiest way to deal with her incredibly overbearing affection had just been to accept most of it. (He'd had to reformulate his plan to live exactly like Beethoven in eight grade anyway.) Lucy, instead of throwing a fit like one would expect, merely leaned back into his lanky frame and rather forcefully kicked the back of Pig-Pen's shin.

"Is it fixed yet?"

"Working on it," came the muffled reply.

"If you can fix the van, I'll get Violet to do you," Sally promised suddenly, excited at the prospect of getting home sooner. Looking up at the faces of those around her, however, her face fell. "Worth a shot."

The next few moments passed in almost contented silence, save for the sound of bits of metal being moved, before, once again, Sally's voice broke through the night air.

"Hey, Linus? How do you think they're going to get the firetrucks up there?" Her statement was met with confused stares, as she pointed to the sky, "Well, we don't want the moon to burn up. Duh!"

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**A/N: Reviews are love. :)**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: Chapter one! It's really short, but the chapters will get progressively longer each time!**

_**Chapter One: **__"Burn, Baby Burn, Schroeder's Inferno"

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_In the beginning, it is always fire. Everything starts with fire. The beginning of a galaxy starts with a fiery explosion. Man walked out of caves when they finally found fire again. Even the very conception of every human being starts from one moment of fire. Twice now, a set of young people were essentially created from the same fiery crimson moon._

_Everything afterwards is created in response to the fire. The need to see the fire. Understand the fire. Extinguish the fire. Control the fire. Harness the fire. Move away from the fire. To bend away from it. To recover from it. _

_It is always fire in the beginning. 272 years ago, it began with a young man who discovered fire in his skin. For our young unproven heroes in 2010, it is just the same...

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_

All thirteen teenagers looked to the sky in confusion, and there it was, a full, red moon in a completely clear sky. They gaped in awe, Violet even managed to turn the camera of her phone on so that she could record the moment for posterity. Time seemed to slow as they silently watched the celestial phenomena unfold. They would never be able to fully understand what was happening, but suddenly the certain death by frostbite they were sure they would endure disappeared as a warmth began to surround them like a cocoon. Frankliin actually mopped his brow of sweat at one point as the minutes ticked slowly by in the growing warmth of the winter night.

Lucy couldn't understand what was happening, but she felt Schroeder's skin, which had been surprisingly and pleasantly warm moments before heat up considerably. Her fingertips felt like they were about to be scorched against his skin and she looked up at him and let out one uncharacteristically soft," Oh my."

"Huh?" Schroeder wondered, looking down at her curiously. He didn't quite understand why she looked like she did all of a sudden. Scared. Astonished. Freaked the hell out.

"Schreoder…you're on fire!" Lucy breathed in amazement.

The rest of the kids looked to the pair of them curiously, before letting out a perfectly synchronized and harmonized gasp of fear and surprise. Any drama teacher would have been proud. The pianist looked down at his arm and sure enough, at the place where Lucy's fingertips had been moments before, a considerable flame had begun to burn, right on his skin. He looked at her in stunned amazement. He didn't feel _anything_. Just sort of warm. And kind of _good_.

Linus acted first, bending and picking as much snow as his hands could gather, tossing it on Schroeder's blazing arm. The flames flickered slightly, but did not extinguish.

"Now that's freaky shit right there," Schroeder surmised in quiet amazement. "Someone figure this out before my brain catches up and I freak the fuck out."

Violet acted next, grabbing the water bottle that was in her coat pocket, uncorking it and jerking her wrist so that it flew from the bottle. The group watched in amazement as the water arched gracefully, and it seemed like it was going to miss Schroeder's arm entirely, until the splash of water seemed to change course very suddenly, landing definitively on the blond's arm. It evaporated immediately.

"Okay, freaking the fuck out now!" He growled as he felt another warmth from his other arm. He glanced down in horror and saw that his other arm was now ablaze, still no pain, just a little warmer than he had already been. "Help me out here guys…"

He looked around at the shock on everyone's face and his gaze settled on Lucy finally. They exchanged a look, one that wordlessly seemed to communicate his fear and desperation and dire need of assistance. She bit her lip slightly as the fire seemed to grow larger, spreading down to his hands, all of his exposed skin was becoming rapidly engrossed in flames. Lucy wondered slightly if it hurt, but she knew intrinsically as she stared at him with wide eyes that it didn't. She could tell he was feeling no pain.

"Please."

His one word was directed at her. She took a deep breath as the others began to stumble backwards and away from the sudden inferno that was Schroeder.

Lucille Van Pelt took one step towards him.

"Schroeder, I'm going to need you to calm down now," Her voice was unusually even, if slightly hesitant as she took another few steps towards him.

"Calm down? CALM THE EVERY FUCKITY FUCK DOWN! Lucy, I'm on FUCKING FIRE!"

"Please, take a deep breath and calm down," Lucy reiterated.

"Lucy, get the hell away from me, what the fuck are you doing? I'm on FIRE," He reiterated irately, hoping to get it through her thick skull that he was engulfed in flames. He shook his head as she stepped ever closer. "Get away…you're going to get hurt."

"No. I'm not," Lucy insisted strongly. "Calm down."

"You really are fucking batshit crazy, you're going to light yourself on fire!" Schroeder desperately insisted. "Back off. I'm going to hurt you…"

"No. You won't," Lucy shook her head resolutely, she was close enough to feel his body ablaze, her cheeks turned a rosy red color from the heat of it, just like sitting in front of a roaring fireplace. She reached a hand up, going to his cheek slowly. "You won't hurt me, Schroeder. Calm down."

He watched in horror as her fingertips got ever closer to his skin and something inside of him clicked. He felt her cool fingertips against his skin and the fire slowly began to die down, embers floating up into the air as the crackling and roaring sound that was literally his body burning moments before ceased and only his steady, deep breaths remained. Lucy smiled and patted his cheek condescendingly.

"Better?" she whispered.

"What the HELL was that?" Peppermint Patty demanded, "You were on fire!"

"You were so-"

"I would NOT make a flaming joke if I were you, Dust Magnet!"

"Alright, this is fucked up shit, right here. What's going on?" Violet demanded.

The roaring sound of a tow truck cut the conversation short. The tow truck was followed closely by an SUV, and all thirteen children suddenly stood shoulder to shoulder, Lucy now gripping Schroeder's hand in an effort to keep him calm and controlled.

"I really wish I had gotten the van to work earlier. It might have saved us from all…_this_," Pig-Pen sighed.

The van's engine, which had been abandoned the minute Lucy had announced that Schroeder was on fire, suddenly roared to life, sounding better than before. Pig-Pen took a deep, confused breath and said quickly, "I really wish I had a million dollars. Right now."

"Doesn't work that way, son," His father laughed as he climbed out of the tow truck and walked towards the group of teenagers. He looked back to the SUV and shrugged as the driver climbed out.

"Dad?" Peppermint Patty furrowed her brow. "What are you doing here?"

Mr. Reichardt looked up towards the moon and sighed. He shared a small, conciliatory smile with Pig-Pen's father. It was never supposed to be them. It was always supposed to be these kids. He surveyed each of them carefully, wondering who had been first. He saw how Schroeder was distanced from the other kids on the end, with only Lucy clinging to his hand. Figures he would manifest first.

The man smiled kindly at all of them and shook his head in approval, "Let's get out of here, kids. We have a lot of explaining to do."

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**Once again, Review are love. :)**

**Next Chapter: **_'Let's Do The Van Warp Again!'_**  
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	3. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter Two! Slightly longer, I think. I have maybe the next two chapters planned, after that... Nada. So, we'll see were this goes. Enjoy.**

_**Chapter Two**:"Let's Do The Van Warp Again!"  
_

_Human beings are only meant to live one lifetime. At best, it could last a little over a century. At worst, it could end right when you're realizing that life is going to be truly amazing. A life snuffed out before a person can truly shine their brilliantly happy life is sad. But still, it is the way of the world. Cats have nine lives. And there has never been one particularly content and blissful cat on the face of the planet. Ghosts are always sad. Vampires are sullen and miserable creatures no matter how much they sparkle. And just think of how unhappy a zombie truly is._

_In 1620, a young man was born in the Plymouth colony of the New World. Miraculously he survived infancy, toddlerhood and made it to his eighteenth birthday unscathed and wholly alive. And after one winter solstice in 1638, he stayed exactly that way. Never to change. Never to join his friends in the hereafter. Never to leave._

_Human beings are truly only meant to live one lifetime. One can never predict what might happen to the human being who is bestowed two lifetimes.

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The kids had been divided up amongst the vehicles and a stern warning from Peppermint Patty's father had set them on their way.

"Go straight to the Gym. No where else."

There was no room in his words for argument, and at that point the thirteen high school students had little energy left in them to argue. The vehicle assignments had been another story altogether. Shermy had insisted on being able to drive his dad's van, lest he want to be "buried under a shit storm of groundings from his menopausal mother forever and ever and ever". Patty went with him, perhaps a tad over-dramatic in insisting that if he were to die, then she would die too.

The two adults had conversed quietly and insisted that Pig-Pen would have to travel with the previously broken down van for some mysterious, unknown reason. Charlie Brown agreed to join the trio, not want to be stuck with his sister, or with Violet.

Lucy and Schroeder had impatiently waited for their assignments, however they never came from the adults who had taken control of the ridiculous scene. Mr. Reichardt had asked for volunteers to host the pair.

"I know you're all scared. But I promise, he won't hurt you. Lucy sticks with him, though. They're a package deal right now," His eyes darted to the pair of outcasts nestled amongst the outcasts. Lucy was still gripping Schroeder's hand, but Schroeder was far from complaining. The heat and out of control spiraling feeling he had experienced earlier under the red moon were gone so long as Lucy didn't let go. Although he'd never thought he'd see the day _he'd_ be the one clinging to her.

"Get in the van, Beethoven," Patty insisted calmly. She gave a half smile Lucy's way and said, "You're on him like glue, Van Pelt."

"Okay," Lucy said softly, whatever crabbiness from earlier having left her.

Once all the passengers were securely belted in, Shermy put the van in drive, following the other vehicles as closely as possible.

"This might not be the best time to talk about it," Patty shrugged, tentatively giving Lucy a consolatory smile over her shoulder. "But, I mean, Schroeder just spontaneously combusted back there. That was some freaky ass Sunnydale shit."

"Oh my God, don't say the S-word. I won't stop freaking out about _Restless_ for the next like, five hours," Charlie Brown tried to lightly interject.

"But how did you do it, Lucy?" Patty wondered, ignoring Charlie's attempt to divert the conversation. "How did you get him to stop burning like that?"

"I don't know," Lucy said softly. "I just knew I could. It's weird."

"Brave," Pig-Pen offered.

"Really, really brave," Shermy nodded.

"You could have totally hurt yourself," Charlie said softly, with a measure of worry.

Lucy suddenly felt warmth emanating from Schroeder's body, sliding off of him in waves, hitting her as if she had just opened a door to a broiling hot oven. She squeezed his hand and he heard her stern whisper, "_Calm down. I didn't get hurt, and I won't now. Calm. Down_."

"You could've," He said quietly.

"Could've what?" Patty wondered curiously.

"_It's okay. It's going to be okay. You can control this. Just think of turning it off like a faucet,"_ Lucy kept urging him.

"It's fire, Lucy. Not a damn water faucet," Schroeder shook his head.

The other four people were staring curiously at the pair in the back. Lucy was silent, looking at Schroeder intently, and Schroeder was talking…getting louder by the moment. Pig-Pen felt the heat coming from a row back in the van and nervously looked to Shermy, whispering, "Stop the van."

"_Calm down. You can't hurt us. You can protect us. Calm down. Breathe deeply._"

"Lucy?" Patty questioned warily, as even she began to feel the heat rising off of Schroeder again. She squeaked nervously when Lucy suddenly rose from her seat, literally kicking Schroeder out of the van. Patty clamored out of the truck after them and the remaining boys in the car were quick to follow. They stopped short, standing in a semi-circle as Schroeder stood a few feet away from Lucy again, his hands engulfed in flames. Lucy wasn't talking, just staring at him intently as he tried to breathe as deeply and evenly as he could.

"_Let it go_."

Lucy's voice was beating in his head, her words were a command and he felt that he had to follow it, he lifted his hands towards the sky slowly and took one last deep breath before he felt a rapid fluttering of his heart, an intense heat in his palms. Patty shrieked in terror as the other boys jumped around her, Shermy wrapping her up in his arms and shielding her face protectively. Lucy stood as close as possible to Schroeder as towers of orange flames shot out of each of his palms into the night sky for a few prolonged, agonizing and amazing seconds.

When it was over, and the darkness of night overtook them Schroeder looked at Lucy incredulously, the ghost of a smile on his face as he panted. It didn't last, as Lucy blinked at him with wide hazel eyes, curious as to what had just transpired, looking lost before her blinks became prolonged and suddenly her knees gave way.

"Lucy!" he called out, but she had already succumbed to unconsciousness, a dead weight in his arms. He lifted her carefully, not wanting to place his hands on bared skin, hoping that he wouldn't give her third degree burns as he walked steadily towards the car, where Pig-Pen and Charlie Brown were rushing to open the door and Shermy and Patty were already hopping into the front of the van, ready to rush away.

"What WAS that?" Patty demanded as Shermy floored it, heading on the back road that would hopefully lead to the people he had been following not ten minutes earlier. "You were talking and Lucy wasn't and then you…shot flames from your hands into the sky! And now Lucy is….what WAS that?"

"I don't know," Schroeder shook his head. "Jesus Christ, I was-I did…FUCK. Is she going to be okay? Lucy…Lucy wake up…wake UP!"

"Was she-was she talking to you? Like…" Shermy faltered at the ridiculousness of saying the thought out loud. But he had seen the way Lucy had been looking at Schroeder during his meltdown.

"Telepathically?" Patty offered, on the exact same page as her boyfriend.

"Lucy? Wake the fuck up, dammit!" Schroeder shouted angrily.

"Dr. Phil needs your advice on a case?" Shermy said.

"Linus just decided to get rid of his blanket?" Charlie offered hopefully.

"It's your wedding night and Schroeder is waiting to deflower you?" Patty suggested.

"If we could just get back to the school faster," Pig-Pen said desperately. "My dad…He'd know what was going on. I mean, I think he would. He seems to know what's going on…"

"Yeah. He would," Charlie nodded. He looked out through the front window of the van, hoping to see taillights in the distance when he felt a strange fluttering in his chest as he vaguely concentrated on their destination.

And then…complete and utter chaos. He heard Patty screaming again, a ridiculously bright flash of white light that burned his retinas. It was blank. Nothing. Patty's scream echoed away and Charlie Brown panicked. Was he dead? Where they all dead now? There was nothing. No air. No sound. No feeling. Just a white light.

And suddenly, Lucy's voice. _Think!_ _Think of where we should be, Blockhead!_

The screeching of brakes.

The tinkling of violently shattered glass.

The van crashed violently and suddenly and Charlie Brown couldn't help but grab onto the seat as Schroeder covered Lucy's body to keep her from flying off of the seat as the truck that had been doing at least fifty miles an hour collided into something a hell of a lot bigger and more solid than a squirrel.

The van had crashed into the High School gym bleachers. Schroeder blinked slowly and he looked down, inspecting Lucy avidly for any sign of duress of damage. She was blinking her eyes slowly, but was still a long way from being okay. He cleared his suspiciously dry throat and grunted, "What happened?"

"I don't know…" Pig-Pen whispered, looking at a fearfully wide-eyed Charlie Brown. He followed his friend's line of vision and gasped at the shattered glass of the van's front window. Shermy was slumped against the steering wheel and Patty…"Oh God, _PATTY_!"

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**Cliffhanger, Don'tcha know? Review! :)**

**Next Chapter: **_''Meet Me At The Bleachers, No Teleportin', No Student Teachers"_**  
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	4. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hey there! Longest chapter yet! Took a lot longer to write, no more snow days! Yes, y'all will get a full list soon. And yeah, Schroeder's a total potty mouth in this story, you love it :D Anyway, Enjoy!**

**_Chapter Three: _**_Meet Me At The Bleachers, No Teleportin', No Student Teachers_

_In most even slightly risky situation, Human find themselves faced with only one option; __**Plan B**__. About fifty percent of the time this plan is one simple thing. _

_Run. _

_Almost every time this plan is actuated however, those running figure out they've left something behind; The key needed to unlock the door to save you from a flood, the last piece of sheet music that could save your choir's rear end, your comb on picture day. And in some cases, the worst cases, they leave behind the people who need them the most. In these scenarios, they find themselves between a rock and a hard place, or, in the case of one of our young heroes, between a rock and a very pushy Van Pelt.

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Shermy picked his head up and his eyes widened in horror at the sight in front of him. Smashed wooden bleachers. A broken windshield. And in front of the demolished van, his girlfriend's small, pale hand sticking up at an awkward angle amongst the broken steel and wood of the gym bleachers. He was out of the car in an instant. Schroeder got to his feet and hoisted Lucy up, taking her out of the van carefully as Charlie Brown numbly followed.

Schroeder clutched Lucy's body to his and he looked down at her to see she was fully awake, although clearly groggy. She sniffled slightly and whispered, "I smell gas…"

Charlie Brown looked to the van and sure enough, a puddle of gas was growing at an alarming rate beneath the van, pooling out and around it. In the next second he felt his heart jump into his throat as one spark from the van's engine seemed to fall from the crumpled van. He barely registered what happened next, but suddenly Lucy was thrust into his arms and Schroeder took a hesitant step towards the horrifying situation that was unfolding mere feet from them and the boys in front of the van trying to get towards Patty.

_You can do this._

Schroeder nodded, hearing Lucy's assurances in his head as time seemed to slow and the small sparks from the engine began to fall, looking very much like gorgeous, infinitely small fireworks. One spark hit the gasoline below the van and he could _feel_ the fire starting just a few feet away from him. He held out his hands in front of him as he steeled himself for the unknown. The fire bloomed quickly and greedily moved to the pool of gasoline that led to the tank in the van, dancing along the floor.

_Now_.

He felt a fluttering in his chest and a deep pull in the muscles of his fingers and the fire that had started under the van began to flow towards him at a ridiculous speed. He felt the warmth in his hands, and it traveled through his body, resting in the pit of his stomach, feeling very much like a few shots of vodka.

"Oh God," Pig-Pen whispered as he watched Schroeder seemingly control and absorb the fire that threatened all of their very existences. He looked at Shermy, who was staring down at the crevice Patty's body had fallen into. He shook his head and said, "We can't get to her…I'm calling an ambulance."

The fire roared behind him and Shermy could only stare down at Patty in horror. She wasn't moving. Her body hung lifelessly under the bleachers, only her hand was immediately visible, and it looked…cold. He turned quickly and glanced at Schroeder, whose brow was furrowed in concentration as fire funneled _into_ his body through his hands. If he couldn't control the fire…there was no chance for Patty.

_Shermy_. _Go._

He grasped Patty's hand. It was clammy and cold already and he tried not to sob out at the feel of it. He dropped to his knees and looked down at the crevice that Patty's hand had poked out of. With one small hiccup in his chest he was squeezing his body into the one foot wide crevice, bending in a way he never quite had before, desperate and needy to get to his girlfriend. To rescue her somehow.

Charlie Brown felt Lucy trembling in his arms as he watched the young quarterback who had been driving them around all night disappear below the bleachers. If he hadn't already been incredibly traumatized by the events of that night, he would never have believed his eyes. The lean and lanky boy seemed to elongate even more, his body almost going liquid as he squeezed below the bleachers to help the trapped girl in any way he could. It was a surreal sight to be sure, but Charlie Brown had never seen a human's body do that before.

_It's okay_. _Calm down…take a moment…_

"I just want to go back…I don't want to die here. I want to go home…"

"No!" Lucy gasped desperately, trying to squeeze her way out of his embrace before both of their fields of vision went to a blinding white.

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"Sprinklers would be good right about now," Pig-Pen whispered, looking between Schroeder battling the fire and Shermy impossibly squeezing his body beneath the bleachers. As if on cue, water began to fall from the ceiling of the gymnasium. He grimaced and wondered quietly, "And a million dollars?"

A half second later he shook his head and concentrated. "Okay…lights. I wouldn't hate it if the lights were on really bright."

The gymnasium was flooded with light and Pig-Pen held his hand to his chest in victory. The roaring sound of the fire Schroeder was consuming died down with the aid of the sprinklers from above. Pig-Pen looked down to get a better view of Shermy and Patty.

"Pig-Pen…help me get her down…she can't be dangling like this!" Shermy's choked, sobbing voice froze Pig-Pen to his very core. He grimaced as he gripped Patty's cold hand and pushed it downwards, freeing her from her precarious position and allowing Sherrmy to hold her before warily placing her on the ground.

"Oh god!" Mike's anguished cry filtered up to them from beneath the bleachers. "Oh God, Patty…baby, breathe for me…PATTY…PATTY, come back….Breathe!"

Schroeder felt his stomach roll and he turned around, anxious to get a grip on Lucy before she could hear Shermy's horrified grief at Patty's lifeless state. His eyes went to the place where he had left her with Charlie Brown and his jaw dropped slightly. They had disappeared into thin air.

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"STOP!"

Lucy could barely get the word to fall from her lips as she struggled against the hold he had over her before she was stuck in that nothing. A pain shot from behind her eyes at the brightness and nothingness of it all, chilling her to the core. It was an awful place to be, she instantly decided. She felt herself suddenly being pulled in a million directions at once, her subconscious going to the first connection it had made earlier that night and she felt more than the nothingness. She felt Schroeder's extreme panic and duress. He needed her, that was certainly true. Patty needed her. _Desperately_. She tried to blink herself out of the nothingness but couldn't will it away and she reached out desperately with the only means she had available to her.

_Please. Take us to where you want to go. Take us SOMEWHERE! Please!_

She felt a shuddering and crash of air overtook her as Charlie Brown's feet landed on solid ground. He took deep gasping breaths and set her down on an elegant chaise lounge. Lucy looked around curiously and wondered,

"Are we back at your house?"

Charlie Brown breathlessly nodded. He sat down next to Lucy and held his head in his hands. The reality of what they had already been through that night came crashing down on him and he tried desperately to catch his breath while holding back deep, guttural sobs that threatened to tear his insides apart.

"Did we just disapparate?" Lucy wondered softly. He threw her an incredibly confused look and she shrugged helplessly, explaining, "My mind wandered for a stray second."

"Glad to know your mind can wander right now. I'm kind of stuck on, OHMYGOD OHMYGOD THERE IS A MAN ON FIRE AND I JUST TELEPORTED US TO OUR DEATHS," He deadpanned.

"We…we have to go back," Lucy whispered. She felt her insides tugging impatiently. She was needed. She could tell. "We have to go back."

"No way. There's no way," Charlie Brown mumbled. "The whole place probably blew up by now. We're _safe_ here."

"I'm not. If I don't go back…if I can't keep them safe, I don't think **I** am safe," Lucy furrowed her brow in confusion. "I can feel it. I can tell."

"I know you aren't actually crazy," He revealed. "Why are you talking crazy?"

"I just know," Lucy shrugged. "We have to go back. Patty doesn't know-"

"Oh God…that poor girl," Charlie Brown nearly whimpered. "She was just…hanging there, like a doll with her hand trapped in the cushions of a couch…just dangling…"

"Please…we have to go back!" Lucy demanded.

"Lucy, you know me. I-I run. I don't like confrontation. I don't like danger. I don't like ME in danger. I run," He said quietly, the shame evident in his voice. "I run until I can feel safe. It's not safe there. I can't—"

_YOU WILL._

He looked at Lucy in amazement. Her lips hadn't moved. He was certain of it. But her strong and clear voice rang in his head as if she had just shouted into it with a megaphone.

_Take my hand. TAKE ME BACK.

* * *

_

"What do we do?" Pig-Pen looked to Schroeder for answers. "How do we-"

"I don't know!" Schroeder said testily, his eyes darting between the empty space that Charlie Brown and Lucy had occupied minutes ago, to the crushed van behind them, to the small crevice in the bleachers where he could see Shermy bent over Patty's lifeless body in howling, sobbing grief. He closed his eyes briefly and tried to hear Lucy's voice. She had been occupying his mind all night and now he couldn't hear her when he needed to hear her most. He felt his body overheating very suddenly and very quickly. Flames nipped at his fingertips as he felt the miserable disappearance of that calming presence that Lucy had been all night. The adrenaline from controlling the fire moments earlier pulsed through his veins and he felt a rapid loss of control as the flames on his fingertips grew stronger.

"Schroeder!" Pig-Pen shouted. He looked around desperately for Lucy, knowing that she could stop the pianist from becoming a blazing inferno that would snuff out all of their lives momentarily.

"I can't help it!" Schroeder countered peevishly, letting out a harsh grunting sound as he clenched his teeth and aimed his hands away towards the high ceiling of the gym, releasing two violent towers of fire into the air. He tried to funnel it away from him and the leaky gas tank of the van, feeling completely out of control and more dangerous than he ever had wanted to be before. He needed Lucy.

"I wish…" Pig-Pen bit his lip, concentrating as hard as he could. "I wish there was an ambulance here right now."

…

Nothing.

"I wish there was a firetruck…"

…

"National Guard…"

….

"Million dollars?"

Pig-Pen blinked back his tears forlornly at his failure and sniffled, "I wish everyone was here."

"LUCY" Schroeder let the name fall from his lips with a measured amount of joy as he saw Charlie Brown and Lucy back in the spot they had been standing in previously.

"PATTY!" Lucy shouted, bounding towards them and staring down at the mangled metal. She cringed and looked to Schroeder with a desperate plea in her hauntingly large hazel eyes. She had felt his immediate calm at her presence and felt some of her energy sapping towards him as he controlled the heat coursing through his body.

_Melt it_.

"This is some grade-A, freaky ass shit right here," Violet gasped as she rushed into the gym with the other kids surveying the surreal scene.

Schroeder stared down at his hands and felt them warming up instantaneously. He took a measured breath and did his best to control the feeling that was becoming ridiculously familiar in the span of a few hours. He felt the flutter of his heart beat, the tense burning in the muscles of his arms, and the pleasant warmth in the palms of his hands. He bent over, placing his palms on the metal that trapped Shermy and Patty.

_You're okay. You're doing a fantastic job. Just bend it back now…_

He complied to Lucy's orders in his head, pulling back the pliant steel that he had melted with the heat from his hands. Once the hole was Lucy-sized she carefully bent over it and squeezed her eyes shut from the sight of Patty's broken body.

_Shermy. Help me down._

Shermy let out a strangled cry as he looked up and saw that Lucy wanted to come down. Not even realizing his own actions, the long, lean lines of his body grew longer and leaner, reaching his hands up higher than would have been humanly possible until they settled around Lucy's waist. He lowered her down the ten foot drop, too overcome with grief and worry to even realize the impossibility of his most recent actions.

Schroeder gaped at the top of the bleachers at what he had just witnessed. He felt the rest of his friends and the two adults arrive at his side, surveying the scene. Violet broke down into sobs at the sight of Patty, and Linus could only wince painfully from the bottom of the bleachers at her reaction. He didn't need to see it. He had already had the distinct non-pleasure half an hour ago.

They could only watch as Shermy dropped to his knees again, draping himself over Patty's lifeless, bloodied and bruised body once more. Lucy's eyes drifted shut and her face tilted ever so slightly upward.

_Patty. Come back. Come back now. We need you. We'll need you so badly. If what Linus has seen is true, we can't do it without you. Don't be afraid. There isn't anywhere else for you to go. Come back._

Schroeder watched Lucy nervously as she began to sway on her feet, looking ready to collapse at any minute again. He was about to jump down the ten feet and break an ankle or two in order to be down there to catch her when she inevitably fell.

He felt a hand grip his shoulder however and looked up to see Rerun Van Pelt with a determined look on his face. Before anyone could do anything, Rerun had jumped through the warped metal of the bleachers head first. Even after all the events of that evening, he couldn't help his eyes widening in shock as Rerun practically floated down to the trio underneath the massive bleachers. Schroeder finally took stock of the whole situation down there, not just Lucy's psychic trance or whatever the hell it was.

Patty was _glowing_.

It was beautiful. Her skin shone with an iridescent pink light that would have probably humiliated the girl if she had been either conscious or _alive_. The pianist's eyes narrowed as he squinted down at the girl he was SURE was dead moments before. There were lines along her body where blood had been seeping out of her body moments before, literally sewing themselves shut, leaving ugly red lines behind as scars. Her chest, which had been concave due to the broken ribs and collapsed lungs puffed up with air suddenly, heaving sudden breaths. Her skull, which had looked as if it were cracked mended itself before their very eyes. Even her unnaturally bent wrist righted itself with a surprising quickness.

"Honey?" Shermy whispered as Patty's chest rose and fell with incredibly uneven breaths. He spared one quick glance up at Lucy as she collapsed into her brother's waiting arms, completely unconscious again.

"OH GOD!" Patty gasped suddenly, her voice hoarse and haggard, as she managed to flip herself over onto her hands and knees, "That fucking _sucked_."

* * *

**Next Chapter: **_"Get on up, It's time to fly, yeah! It's so much fun being off of our feet!"_


	5. Author's Note

AN: I try not to do authors notes in the middle of stories, but I've gotten a few asks about it, and I wanted to explain to you all what's going on with YSNCB and Insanity.

After a lot of thought, I'm retiring YSNCB and turning it into an original story. Storylining it just wasn't working and it was losing what made it a Peanuts fic in the first place. I'll post the first chapter here as a teaser, and hopefully you all will love the new characters and improved storyline.

As for Insanity, it's currently being rewritten and I'll hopefully get to updating it over Spring Break.

I love you all for still supporting the stories; the response they got was just amazing.

Sincerely, TheTimelordTourist


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